Darkness Falls

UK 1998

Reviewed by Danny Leigh

Synopsis

Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.

The Isle of Man. A private jet deposits Mark Driscoll on an isolated runway, observed by a man answering his mobile phone with the name 'Blue Eyes'. In a children's playground, the enigmatic Simpson tells Driscoll he has until the next morning to repay a £10 million debt. Driscoll's wife Sally is interrupted while soaking in her jacuzzi by a stranger, John Barrett, who claims they have met before, though she recalls no such meeting. He reminds her of its circumstances: in flashback, the Driscolls sit besides Barrett and his wife Jane at a corporate reception. Barrett and Sally make small talk, while he surreptitiously disengages the property's alarm system.

Driscoll returns home and immediately recognises Barrett. Anxious about that evening's dinner engagement with financier Mr Hayter, Driscoll demands that Barrett leave, even after he mentions that Jane is now comatose. The Driscolls argue; Barrett produces a gun. He instructs Sally to bind and gag Driscoll, then interrogates him about his relationship with Jane. Outside Hayter and his spouse find themselves locked out. Barrett confronts Driscoll with evidence that proves he had an affair with Jane, and that Driscoll is responsible for her current condition. After revealing Jane is pregnant with Driscoll's child, Barrett leaves and Sally follows. Driscoll breaks free, only to be shot dead by Blue Eyes. In hospital, prior to having her life-support system switched off, Jane gives birth. Sally and Barrett hold the baby.

Review

Having spent much of his career as a director of photography on innumerable US movies (such as Hellraiser III and Necronomicon) debut director Gerry Lively crams Darkness Falls with visual flourishes. However, imagery fails to compensate for the film's lack of effective characterisation. Indeed, the flashbacks and the like attain a stupefying level of literal-mindedness. It is apparently not enough to hear that John Barrett's coma-bound wife Jane was dragged from her car after a road accident: as if catering for an audience of amnesiacs, Darkness Falls shows the action exactly as it has just been described.

Despite the plot's obsessive attention to what happened and how, it remains depressingly obscure about motivation. Certain crass personal motifs are revisited time and again, yet none of the characters ever comes believably to life. Sally's borderline alcoholism, for example, is a trait lingered over at every opportunity, but no one ever explains why this American girl is in such a quintessentially English environment. Similarly, it's typical of the damagingly reductive disdain for characterisation and worrying misogyny of Darkness Falls that while the story hinges on the assumption that John Barrett loves his wife, she is represented only as a pliant, needy adulteress.

Without some understanding of the principals, it becomes impossible to care about their fate, and each supposedly revelatory plot twist falls ever flatter in consequence. Each and every story development is signposted far in advance. The only genuine moment of surprise is a life-affirming resolution presumably designed as the emotional climax of the entire piece, but which arrives almost as an afterthought.

While none of the cast - not even the usually reliable Ray Winstone as Barrett - manages to elevate themselves above the material, it is hard not to feel sympathy for them as they struggle to make their characters more than ciphers. They are obliged to tackle dialogue which veers from the inadvertantly comic ("all that counts is lust, greed and fear - the rest is merely conversation" ) to the bizarrely strangulated ("I won't be but a minute" and "our guests are soon to be arriving" are just two examples which reek of cod-theatrical pretension).

Given his use of tatty production values, blatant sexism and actors known predominantly for their involvement in television series, it's as if Lively is paying homage to the Michael Winner strain of British cinema. The trappings of wealth are fetishised throughout, while Barrett's modest social status is explicitly denigrated. In the dispiriting vernacular of class snobbery which it feigns to condemn, Darkness Falls is a nasty, common little film.

Alberto Ardissone and Film Development Corporation present in association with The Isle of Man Film Commission and Vine International Pictures Ltd

Developed in association with Jo Gilbert

Executive Producers

Alberto Ardissone

Kari Ardissone

Bloomsbury Films:

Christopher Parkinson

Bruce Sharman

Line Producer

James Gibb

Associate Producers

Susanna Wyatt

Bloomsbury Films:

Helen Tulley

Production Co-ordinator

Kate Dain

Location Manager

Clive Miles

Post-production Supervisor

James Gibb

Assistant Directors

John Bernard

Val Elingworth

Kit Ryan

Script Supervisor

Danuta Skarszewska

Casting

Hubbard Casting

Lisa-Anne Porter

Post Voice:

Louis Elman

Camera Operator

Peter Ditch

Special Effects

Mark Turner

MTFX

Art Director

Peter Seddon

Costume Designer

Ffion Elinor

Chief Make-up

Kate Shorter

Chief Hair Stylist

Tara Smith

Titles

Steve Jubb

Soho 601

Opticals

Ray Slater

Soho Images

Music Supervisor

Iain Jones

Music Co-ordinator

Aureen Ritchie

Music Engineer/Programmer

Marcus Brown

Engineer

Tim Hunt

Soundtrack

"String Quintet in C Major" by Franz Schubert, performed by Melos Quartett; "Roses from the South" by Johann Strauss, arranged as "The Rialto Waltz" by Martin Joustra, Andy Blythe, performed by The Four Forté Quartet; "Baby Angel" by Guy Farley, Mark Nevin, Gareth Lucking, performed by Mica Paris